Tom Cruise’s Passion for Doing His Own Stunts Dates Back to 1983’s ‘The Outsiders’, Says Costar Rob Lowe

While Tom Cruise is now well-known for doing his own (often dangerous) stunts, Rob Lowe says the actor seemingly got his start in on-screen physical antics thanks to 1983’s The Outsiders.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s Literally! with Rob Lowe, Lowe, 61, recounted how the film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, had the cast of the film “practice to be gymnasts.”

“Whenever I see Tom doing these amazing stunts, I look back when Francis made us for whatever reason, practice to be gymnasts,” Lowe said, then asking Ralph Macchio (who was his guest on the podcast and also appeared in The Outsiders): “Do you remember this?”

“Well, yeah, everyone was doing their backflip,” Macchio, 63, said. “I mean, I got away with all that stuff as the Johnny kid, the introverted, internal [character]. He was walking by himself … I wasn’t in the rumble, I was in the hospital.”

Coppola’s coming-of-age classic costarred Lowe, Macchio, Cruise and a host of (then) up-and-comers, including  Emilio Estevez and Matt Dillon.

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Lowe said there was “a lot of pressure” on the cast “to like learn backflips and do all this s—.”

“And I don’t know if you’ve ever learned a standing backflip,” he added. “It’s hard, it’s scary as s—. And of course there was only one person — Tom was the only one who did it. And if you watch the movie, the movie is playing and then the movie just stops. And there’s a shot of Tom doing a backflip for no reason. And then the movie continues. I realized that’s where it started for him, 100% that’s where it started.”

Added Macchio: “And then he was quite driven from day one. I mean, that gentleman had a plan … he has the backflip and he comes up grabbing the back of his head ‘cause I’m not so sure he stuck the landing … it was out of frame.”

“By the way, maybe it’s a Texas switch,” joked Lowe, adding: “let’s start a rumor right now, that Tom Cruise actually doesn’t do his stunts and we have the evidence and the evidence is The Outsiders.”

Of course, Cruise does indeed do his stunts, with Lowe and Macchio noting that in his latest film, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, Cruise filmed a scene in which he parachutes out of a plane, while the parachute is burning.

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the burning parachute …  It makes my stomach hurt,” Lowe said.